The premise for The Kindergarten Teacher is a strange one in which a 5-year-old student of the titular character is a prodigy poet, and his teacher attempts to give him a better life. The primary subject of this film is this teacher's clear, unhealthy obsession with this child, which we never fully come to understand, but it is extremely unsettling.

Early in the film we see this teacher attend what seems to be a class on poetry, and she uses various poems by the young child in her kindergarten group as her own work. It is unclear whether this is to make sure the child's poems have merit or if it is to simply submit something to class as her own work. These poems seem to be impromptu, but it is clear as the film goes on that at least some planning or method is behind what he "writes" since he will pace back and forth and then announce he has a poem and start to recite it.

The teacher is a hypocrite since she criticizes the child's nanny for reciting his poems in auditions while she herself is also using the poems as described in the previous paragraph. Eventually the teacher makes the situation more about the child than about her, bringing him to a poetry seminar of sorts in order for him to be noticed by people who will actually appreciate him for what he does, unlike the boy's father who the teacher disagrees with.

What makes this film intriguing is the state of desperation the titular character delves into as she becomes more and more involved in the boy's life. The actress playing the teacher plays the part with a cold, emotionless demeanor, suggesting she needs or wants a child in her life as she is lifted up around the boy. Towards the end of the film, there are clearly so many insecurities in her character as she is in a deteriorating state of mind, and this is the main strong point of the film.

3.0/4.0

An odd exploration of art and artist, The Kindergarten Teacher's most notable contribution may be its camerawork...which is almost a character in and of itself. The plot lags, the characters perplex, but the questions persist. It is not a flawless film, but it sure is interesting. And hard not to watch.

"The Kindergarten Teacher (2014 release from Israel; 120 min.) brings the story of Nira, a kindergarten teacher, and Yoav, a 5 yr. old boy in her class. As the movie opens, we see Nira talking to her husband about the remarkable gift the boy has, spewing poetry at any given time. The boy's nanny confides that she is using the boy's poets at her auditions. Meanwhile, Nira and the boy grow ever closer. To tell you more would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.

Couple of comments: this is the second movie from up-and-coming writer-director Nadav Lepid, who previously brought us "Policeman". In the DVD extras, he discloses in an interview that the story is mostly auto-biographical, to my surprise. Turns out that Lepid as a young boy went around proclaiming poetry out of nowhere. As to the relationship between Nira and the boy, once it becomes clear how protective she feels about the boy, the only question that remains is how far she will take it... The two main characters are portrayed beautifully by Sarit Larry as Nira, and even more impressive is Avi Schnaidman as the young boy. In the director's interview in the DVD bonus materials, he explains how they went about casting for the role of the young boy.

I don't think this movie ever saw a US theatrical release 9and if it did, it never came to Cincinnati),which is a darn shame. I picked this up while browsing the foreign movie section at my local library. I continue to be impressed with the quality of movies coming out of Israel. For such a small country, they sure do have some great movies. If you are in the mood for a high-quality "all talk, no action" movie, you cannot go wrong with "The Kindergarten Teacher".